


that look in your eyes

by the_golden_eyed_count



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy - Cassandra Clare, The Mortal Instruments (Movies), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: (sort of on both counts), Character Study, Eyes, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Insecure Alec, Insecure Magnus, Love, M/M, Self Loathing, Sort Of, True Love, alec's eyes, and they both think the other is the most beautiful man in the world, kind eyes, magnus's cat eyes, magnus's glamoured eyes, magnus's mom, self-image issues, shadowhunter childhoods kinda suck, short and sweet, they really love each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-09
Updated: 2018-06-09
Packaged: 2019-05-19 22:08:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14882114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_golden_eyed_count/pseuds/the_golden_eyed_count
Summary: me? writing this in the middle of the night while coughing a lot because of curse i'm sick? more likely than you thinki mean i legit wrote this in like an houralso y'all should like. go to twitter and tweet with #saveshadowhunters and #pickupshadowhunters and sign the petition and etc. just. think about it





	1. alec's eyes

Alec had never thought much of his eyes.

Shadowhunters weren't trained to think much of themselves, especially their bodies.

Their bodies were weapons, tools, and nothing more. 

If Alec was thinking about his appearance, it was only in practical terms--would he able to move effectively in this outfit? Would it be easily stained or ripped? Was he strong enough to easily fire a bow or keep moving when hit? 

Alec knew what he looked like, of course.

He was tall and broad. He had dark hair and hazel eyes. Runes decorated his pale skin. He was pretty muscular, probably average for a shadowhunter.

But it didn't mean anything to him.

He wasn't like Izzy and Jace--he didn't seduce or distract, and he certainly didn't date or hook up.

He'd noticed people looking at him when he wasn't glamoured on missions--vaguely, he knew he wasn't ugly or anything. But it didn't matter to him either way. 

His eyes, least of all.

The only thing that mattered about his eyes was how well they could see. How far, how fast, how accurately. The color meant nothing to him.

 

Until Magnus.

Magnus was beautiful and bright and came suddenly into his life like a falling star. 

And he--he liked Alec. He thought Alec was handsome, he thought Alec was interesting.

He flirted with him, he smiled at him. He looked past Izzy and Jace and straight to Alec.

And it was later, when they were dating--when Alec was half naked in his bed with his arms wrapped loosely around Magnus's waist--that Magnus said softly, " _You know, your eyes are beautiful."_

Alec had been confused. It was late, they were warmly entwined and sleepy, and here was the most beautiful man in the world looking up at him like  _he_ was the angel. 

" _I mean it,"_ Magnus had insisted. _"They're gorgeous. They're so pretty. The hazel is... splendid. I can see a thousand colors in them... And they're warm. You're so beautiful, you know..."_

His voice had trailed off, and when Alec had looked down (unable to hold back a fond, lovestruck smile) he was asleep, face tucked against Alec's arm. 

Alec didn't forget that.

He thought about it the next morning when he was looking in the mirror, getting ready for the day.

Were his eyes really.... beautiful, to Magnus?

For the first time perhaps ever, he looked into his own eyes, studying his reflection. They were... fine, he supposed. But he didn't see anything special in them. Not like Magnus's.

He blinked.

But Magnus liked them.

He flushed slightly and turned away from the mirror. He didn't know why it surprised him that Magnus thought he was beautiful. Magnus was kind and wonderful and he'd never been shy about telling Alec how he felt. 

But still. His eyes--Magnus liked his eyes.

It was so small. Such a small thing to be pleased over.

But Alec was.

His eyes were pretty. (Or at least, according to his boyfriend--but did anyone else's opinion really matter?) 

 

* * *

 

Magnus loved Alec's eyes.

He just did.

They were expressive and dark and warm. They were colorful but in such a way the colors blended into one and were the perfect, dark mixture.

It was one of the first things he'd noticed about Alec back in Pandemonium--a tall, gorgeous shadowhunter with dark hair and pretty eyes. What's not to like?

(Well. Shadowhunter.)

(But, as he would learn later, Alec was different.)

And when he saw Alec again, saw the way he grew flustered when Magnus flirted with him, how he smiled at him when they first talked... it was a novelty, he mused, to see a shadowhunter with such kind eyes. 

Dark eyes, sure, and they hardly matched his stoic and cold expression (when they'd first met, he'd given that crooked grin, eyes brighter and happier) but they were there. 

And when Magnus had exhausted himself healing Luke, Alec's eyes had been soft and worried--he'd given Magnus his strength, trusted him, and when he'd finally collapsed, Alec had caught him, cradling him with his whole body.

And he'd stayed.

Magnus was fascinated. Already caught in his orbit, intrigued and utterly captured.

A shadowhunter with kind eyes, a shadowhunter who willingly helped him and trusted him and  _stayed._

What a curiosity.

(Alec left in the morning, but even when he was scared he wasn't cruel.)

(Well, not yet.)

 

In the end, everything turned out well.

Alec came back to him when he didn't have to. Saved himself. Those dark eyes staring into Magnus's as he marched down the aisle, those eyes fluttering closed as he kissed him.

And then things happened, so fast and one thing after another, but there was those moments... those slow, honey-sweet moments where he just got to be with Alec.

His kind-eyed, wonderful shadowhunter.

 


	2. magnus's eyes

 

Magnus's eyes are beautiful.

Glamoured, they were a soft, warm brown--easy to get lost in. 

And they showed such emotion, too. Kindness, love, sadness... as if all the secrets in the world could be found by cupping his cheek and staring into his eyes.

Magnus always blushed just slightly (he'd deny it) when Alec complimented them. 

If Alec had to choose his favorite part of Magnus's body, he'd have a hard time--he was practically perfect, after all, with his muscular thighs and gorgeous face, his very nice ass and his broad shoulders, his soft, styled hair and pink lips, his long legs and gentle hands.

But his eyes were something else altogether.

They'd been the first thing he'd noticed when he'd met Magnus.

Despite the fact he was supposed to be a warlock, and  _Magnus Bane,_ no less--a hedonist and a greedy, out-of-control  _downworlder..._ but the first thing Alec noticed were his kind eyes. He didn't look like the person his mother had described, the person inscribed in the Clave's files.

And then time had sped up again and things were happening, one on top of the other, and Magnus flirted with him and there was a demon and Jace--

But even later, when he'd decided to get married, he couldn't forget Magnus's eyes.

 

But that was just his brown eyes.

They were beautiful, they were amazing... but they were nothing next to his real eyes.

His real eyes were golden and luminous, the pupils slitted like a cat's.

And the first time Alec really got a good look at them, they were... scared. 

 _"Sometimes... I lose control,"_ he'd admitted. Like it was a bad thing. Like he expected Alec to shove him away.

And how could Alec do anything but tell him how beautiful he was?

Because they were. They were the most beautiful thing Alec had ever seen.

 

* * *

 

 

Magnus had never liked his eyes.

His brown eyes were--they were okay. They were normal, at least, but they weren't really his. They were a lie.

But they kept him safe--he'd never be that scared little boy again, the boy living on the streets with monster eyes that everyone feared. No one would ever look at him and know exactly what he was (unless he let them).

No one would ever see his father's eyes (unless he let them).

Instead, he showed them his mother's eyes.

Looking in the mirror had always been hard.

He had a lot of his mother in his face--her nose, her lips. He'd look at his reflection and see his dead mother looking back, staring accusingly from his own features. She was dead because of him, and looking into those brown eyes was a reminder of that.

But he'd rather have her eyes than his.

She'd been a good woman before he'd ruined her. She deserved to live on, even in little ways. 

And anyway, he'd always liked brown eyes. And blue eyes or green ones wouldn't suit him anyway.

 

But his cat eyes... they were worse. 

They were ugly, weren't they? They were an inhuman color and the pupils were strangely shaped. They were monstrous and demonic, they were proof of his awful heritage. 

They were a reminder of Asmodeous, of everything he was and everything he'd done.

Magnus didn't like them.

(No one else did, either.)

 

Alec didn't think so.

Alec had told him they were beautiful. 

(No one had ever called them beautiful before.) 

He'd sounded so sincere and soft.  _Magnus... they're beautiful. You're beautiful._

Magnus's heart felt warmer.

Maybe they weren't just his father's eyes. Not just monster eyes, demon eyes.

Maybe they could just be  _his_ eyes. Beautiful eyes.

(He decided that maybe, just maybe, he'd wear his glamour less. Around Alec only, of course.)

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> me? writing this in the middle of the night while coughing a lot because of curse i'm sick? more likely than you think  
> i mean i legit wrote this in like an hour 
> 
> also y'all should like. go to twitter and tweet with #saveshadowhunters and #pickupshadowhunters and sign the petition and etc. just. think about it


End file.
